You’ve been laid off (or you've left your job). Suddenly, those bills look daunting, and the job market bleak. Plus, your car’s making a worrisome clunking noise. You feel a headache coming on. The fact is, your body may be taking your unemployment as hard as you are…

It has long been established that chronic stress can affect your health. Put laboratory or zoo animals under stress and they get sick or die – and so do humans. Ongoing stress ups the risk of cardiovascular disease, colds, depression, and even the recurrence of oral and genital herpes. Now researchers at the University of California, San Francisco are closer to understanding why.

Immunity Goes Underground

The researchers examined the immune systems of 100 unemployed and 100 employed healthymen and women, taking blood samples monthly for four months to measure the effectiveness of a particular type of immune system cell. One-quarter of the participants were reemployed before the study ended, permitting investigators to take blood samples immediately before and after the workers obtained new jobs.

What the researchers found won’t surprise anyone who’s been laid off: Unemployment stresses out the immune system. The persistently unemployed group – men or women – had significantly lower immune function compared to the employed. But when someone became reemployed, the stress lessened and immune cells recovered.

Interestingly, neither group reported any illnesses during the study. Other studies of unemployment and illness have had mixed results: some have found increases and others have not.

In general, the San Francisco findings were consistent with an 8-month Swedish study comparing the function of a particular immune system cell in unemployed and employed women. Once again, immune system functionality decreased significantly in the unemployed. What was new in the San Francisco study was the ability to compare immune system activity before and after gaining employment.

The unemployed aren’t the only ones whose immunity suffers from stress. Bereaved spouses, war prisoners and hurricane victims all have slumping immune system function.

The Sabotage of Stress

Increased vulnerability to disease caused by chronic stress may be due to changes in the activity of certain brain chemicals. We know that in both laboratory animals and humans, stress increases epinephrine and norepinephrine, chemicals in the sympathetic nervous system. And increased levels of these compounds may impair immune system activity.

Under stress, your heart rate speeds up, you breathe faster and you may even feel more energy. Your body is responding as if you are in danger – the fight-or-flight response. You can also feel the effects in your stomach and back, and you may have trouble sleeping. It doesn’t do anything good for your mood either; you are more vulnerable to mood swings or depression. (See related article: Learn How to Deal with Stress Effectively)

In the short term, the response is fine. But long term, the resulting chemical changes appear to be a pathway to infections, tumors and autoimmune diseases.

Are All Stressors Equal?

Sure, unemployment is enough to dial up the stress. But what about employment? Or caring for sick children and Alzheimer patients? Aren’t those things just as pressure-packed?

Work stress, financial stress and major life events like the loss of a loved one or divorce are associated with acute heart attacks. A recent study in the British Medical Journal found a strong link between work stress and metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors likely to increase the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Work-related stress usually seems to stem from a mismatch between job responsibility and authority. If you have a lot of responsibility but little control over how the job gets done, you are set up for unhealthy stress. As with the unemployment study, the resulting rise in certain brain chemicals appears to compromise the immune system.

But there is good news for caregivers attending to patients with Alzheimer’s disease or to sick children. While worry, financial strain and physical demands can wear down the heartiest of caregivers, decreases in immune function are not as common in this group as they are in the unemployed or in a stressed-out worker. One reason may be that providing care offers some psychological rewards that offset at least some stress. (See related article: 5 Ways to Improve Job Satisfaction)

Does Duration Matter?

In the San Francisco study, the longest period of unemployment was 19 months. The fact that measures of immune function returned to normal levels so quickly after reemployment suggests that certain physiological systems may be resilient if the stress lasts less than two years.

Indeed, in the work-related stress study, the effects of stress were observed over 14 years. So the body has a fairly generous capacity to deal with stress over limited periods, perhaps even a few years.

Stress Self-Defense

The exact factors that moderate the effects of chronic stress – and determining if those effects are permanent –requires more research. However, in the meantime, you can try the following to make you less vulnerable to the mental and physical effects of stress:

Just taking a 30-minute walk four times a week boosts your immune system. Don’t overdo it though; too much exercise can actually lower immunity.

3. Watch your diet.

Following a diet rich in fish, fruits and vegetables and low in red meat can bolster your immune system. Throw in a little chicken soup with mushrooms as well; studies show that both seem to strengthen your body’s ability to fight illness. Although researchers aren’t clear why chicken soup works, it could offer a psychological boost. And mushrooms appear to increase the production of certain substances (such as white blood cells) that protect us.

4. Turn up the iPod.

According to one study, reporters on deadline who listened to 30 minutes of music boosted their levels of immunoglobulin A (IgA), antibodies that help fight infection.

5. Have a little sex, a little wine.

Sex and even hugs also raise IgA levels, as does a glass of wine.

6. Stick to a routine.

One of the tough things about losing a job is that suddenly you have no timetable, no parameters for your day. Keeping a regular schedule of sleep, exercise, job hunting, and even playing with the kids will help keep you and your mood in balance.

7. Don’t beat yourself up.

It’s easy to feel lousy after losing or leaving a job but don’t second-guess what happened. Instead, try listing all your positive attributes and experiences on paper. Think about the opportunities a new job may offer – like the chance to pursue something you’ve always wanted to do.

Are You On the Road to a Heart Attack?

Every 20 seconds a heart attack is occurring somewhere in the United States. Coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in this country, contributes to the 1.5 million heart attacks that occur each year. Will you become a part of this statistic? Find out if you're ticker is going to keep ticking with this heart attack quiz.

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